8o ENGLISH LAKE DISTRICT FISHERIES 



try round the weeds, and especially in the open 

 spaces between the weeds. The moment you feel a 

 bite, strike firmly but gently, and keep your fish as 

 much as possible out of the weeds. Lots of jack of 

 from I Ib. to 2 Ibs. may be taken in this way, and 

 sometimes a really good fish is got. Of course now 

 and then one of them manages to nip off the hook 

 with its sharp teeth, but it is an easy matter to slip 

 on another, especially if fixed by a loop as de- 

 scribed for perch-fishing. But the sport is really 

 good ; for a pike finely hooked on gut tackle is as 

 much unlike the same fish taken by trolling with 

 several large hooks in its mouth as can well be im- 

 agined. Many a trout taken with the minnow does 

 not fight as well for a time as does a pike, but the 

 pike gives in sooner than the trout. Still, fishing 

 for jack with what is practically perch tackle is by 

 no means a bad way of passing a hot July day, when 

 most other kinds of angling are out of the question ; 

 and there is the satisfaction that you are thinning 

 the number of pike. 



The shallow water from Belle Isle to Rawlin- 

 son's Nab is good pike ground, and better still is 

 the Parsonage Bay ; while, further down the lake, 

 Grass Holme is a favourite spot. At the first- 

 named place I have more than once had a pike 

 on each rod at the same time, and upon one 

 occasion almost succeeded in landing three fish 

 with two baits a bigger fish having seized a 

 smaller one as it was being pulled in. At the 

 head of the lake there is good trolling along the 

 western shore from Waterhead to Wadbarrow. 

 Castle Bay and Green Tuft are also good localities. 

 It should be remembered that pike are usually 

 found in the shallower weedy bays, and not far 

 from the shore. In this they are not unlike trout, 

 only whilst the former prefer weeds, trout love to 

 haunt the pebbly shallows. 



